Chapter 96: Hang It Up

After learning about the matchmaker’s details, Shazhu stuck his hands in his sleeves and turned toward home, hearing the women in the courtyard gossiping about the Li family—he knew someone had leaked news of the child.

“Come on, old folks, hey, don’t gossip about others behind their backs—show some decency.”

Shazhu was an upright man; he couldn’t stand hearing these women speak ill of others, especially Li Xuewu, whom he got along with well.

“Mind your own business.”

Jia Zhangshi, still angry that Shazhu hadn’t shown up for the match, shot his words right back at him.

“Exactly, Shazhu, you’re not trying to curry favor with Li Xuewu, are you?”

“That’s right, Zhuzi—you better think hard. Don’t you know what kind of man Li Xuewu used to be?”

“Exactly. Now he comes back with a kid. His job’s doomed. Still a cadre?”

“Cadre? He can’t even control his own belt. If someone reports him, Li Xuewu is finished.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the women froze, glancing at Jia Zhangshi with strange expressions.

Talking behind someone’s back was one thing—it was “the way of the alley”—but reporting them? That went beyond what these women could handle.

Shazhu didn’t bother arguing with them. He grinned wickedly. “If you’re not afraid of dying, go ahead—keep gossiping here. Think about this: Li Xuewu started work at the steel mill and sent over a dozen men straight to the western suburbs to be shot.”

I Have a Scroll of Ghost and God Illustrations

This shocked the women. In this era, “being shot” meant being loaded onto a big truck with no hood, taken to the western execution ground, and killed on the spot—everyone had gone to watch the spectacle.

Seeing they were listening, Shazhu tucked his hands in his sleeves and chuckled. “Report him? Report him? Do you even know which way the reporting door opens? If Li Xuewu hadn’t prepared, would he have brought the child home?”

Shazhu spoke seriously. “Forget the punishment for false accusation. Just consider Li Xuewu’s ruthlessness—he might not dirty his hands on you, but killing your men? Easy. Do you believe he could make your men kneel and beg him for mercy?”

Watching the women’s embarrassed faces, Shazhu scolded further: “What? Tired of your good life? Want to follow Aunt Jia and become a widow? I say go for it~”

“Oh, my pot’s still boiling water—I need to go back.”

“Me too, my clothes are still soaking in the basin.”

Remembering their husbands’ warnings about Li Xuewu’s brutality, the women turned pale and scattered.

After they left, Shazhu turned to Jia Zhangshi, who still wanted to curse him: “Aunt Jia, think back to that thing pressed against your forehead last time. Do you think if you fall into Li Xuewu’s hands again, he’ll just pull the trigger? Don’t forget—you’ve got a case file waiting at the steel mill.”

“He dares! He did something filthy himself and still fears people talking? Wait—I’ll report him for corrupting discipline!”

Jia Zhangshi, facing Shazhu’s mockery, blustered weakly.

Shazhu didn’t coddle her. He smirked. “Go ahead, go now. If you think it’s too far, I’ll lend you a cart. Need me to point the way? Tell you exactly where to file the report?”

Jia Zhangshi glared at Shazhu, eyes bulging as he spat out cruel words.

“Pah! You’re no better yourself. You’re just hoping I die so you can move into my house? Forget it!”

Jia Zhangshi spat, then hurried off home.

Shazhu chuckled wickedly after her, then hummed a tune as he returned to his room.

In the front courtyard, Li Xuewu was helping Da Lao assemble the cradle. Da Lao had already built the cradle hanging from the rafters.

Old saying: Northeast has three treasures: ginseng, sable fur, and wula grass.

Everyone knows ginseng—it’s a precious medicinal herb.

Sable fur is familiar too—luxury coats are made from it, of course, with distinctions like black sable and purple sable, but we won’t go into that.

Wula grass is a herb native to the Northeast. In old times, Northerners stitched leather casings and stuffed them with pounded, softened wula grass to make winter boots—the poor northern folk’s beloved “grass shoes.”

“Wula” means “leather boot” in Manchu—it was a kind of homemade winter boot worn in the Northeast.

The Northeast also has three oddities: window paper pasted on the outside, young girls smoking big tobacco pipes, and raising children by hanging them.

The first oddity: window paper pasted on the outside. Because the Northeast is bitterly cold, people used paper strips sealed with paste to cover window gaps in winter—this isn’t strange—but strange is that it’s pasted on the outside.

That’s because winter lasts four to five months; if pasted inside, the paper gets damp from steam and easily torn by drafts through the window cracks.

So in earlier years, every Northeastern household with wooden window frames did it this way.

The second oddity: young girls smoking big tobacco pipes. Smoking was a cultural habit in the Northeast—everyone smoked. Even Old Lady Li smoked when she was young.

Northeastern girls grew up with their elders, huddled indoors during winter, with nothing to do. If they weren’t going to smoke the secondhand smoke, they might as well smoke the real thing—so all the girls carried big tobacco pipes.

The third oddity: raising children by hanging them. Northeastern cradles differ from others—they’re suspended by ropes, usually from the rafters. This way, while the mother works indoors, a gentle push now and then keeps the cradle swaying for a long time.

This custom originated from the earliest Northeastern residents—the Manchu and Mongol peoples—both horseback nomadic tribes who often hung their babies’ cradles on their horses when migrating.

Now, Da Lao’s cradle for the child is hung from the rafters.

Some cradles are woven from rattan, but rattan doesn’t grow in the North. So Da Lao carved notches into wooden beams, fitted thin wooden boards, and made a cradle with upturned ends, oval-shaped, with two symmetrical small “ears” on each side for tying ropes.

Li Xuewu took off his cotton shoes, climbed onto the kang, threaded two ropes through the rafters, and tied them to the cradle’s four ears.

“Lower it a bit more.”

Da Lao stood on the ground giving directions, while the old lady sat beside them holding the child as reference.

The cradle’s height should be at the chest level of an adult sitting on the kang—so the kang’s warmth warms the child without overheating him.

Li Xuewu followed Da Lao’s instructions, lowering the ropes until the position was just right.

“Good enough. Come down.”

Seeing Da Lao approved, Li Xuewu tied the ropes tightly, crouched down, and tugged to test their strength—perfect.

The cradle’s bottom was lined with thick dry grass. Liu Yin spread the newly made small quilt over the grass and placed a tiny pillow on top.

“Come, let’s test the cradle Grandpa made,” the old lady gently placed the child into the cradle.

Li Xuewu gave it a gentle push—the cradle began swaying side to side. The child, fascinated by this new toy, stared around, grabbing his own tiny hands.

“Oh, so beautiful! Sitting in the cradle is so beautiful!”

The old lady rocked the cradle while cooing at the child inside.

“It’s all your fault for being naughty when you were young. Our old cradle was rattan—your grandfather bought it at the market. It was sturdy as hell.”

Liu Yin slapped Li Xuewu’s arm. “You? You tied the cradle’s ropes in the courtyard and let the Yan brothers across the way pull you around. That brick ground? In two days, you ruined it. Otherwise, your eldest granddaughter could’ve used it.”

Li Xuewu grinned cheekily. “Old things go, new things come. Look—my daughter’s using the new cradle now. See how good Grandpa’s cradle is.”